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LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM
(Mr. FERGUSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)
Mr. FERGUSON. Madam Speaker, I rise for the purpose of inquiring to the majority the schedule for the week to come.
I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Aguilar), my friend and colleague, the vice chair of the Democratic Caucus.
Mr. AGUILAR. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
On Monday, the House will meet at 12 p.m. for morning-hour debate and 2 p.m. for legislative business, with votes expected no earlier than 6:30 p.m.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for morning-
hour debate and 12 p.m. for legislative business.
On Thursday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. for legislative business, with last votes no later than 3 p.m.
We will consider several bills under suspension of the rules. A complete list of the suspension bills will be announced by the close of business today.
In addition, we will consider bills rejecting hate toward the Asian-
American and Pacific Islander community, including S. 937, the Senate-
passed COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which addresses the dramatic increase in hate crimes targeting the AAPI community since the start of the pandemic.
H. Res. 275, a resolution condemning the horrific shootings in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 16, 2021, and reaffirming the House of Representatives' commitment to combatting hate, bigotry, and violence against the AAPI community.
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We will also consider H.R. 1629, the Fairness in Orphan Drug Exclusivity Act, which closes the loophole that blocks pharmaceutical competition and prevents innovative treatments for opioid use disorder from coming to market, and would help millions of Americans suffering from opioid addiction.
Next week, the House will also consider the Emergency Security Supplemental to Respond to January 6th Appropriations Act, 2021, which addresses enhanced security needs for the Capitol complex; and House Resolution 3233, the National Commission to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol Complex Act, which establishes a commission to investigate the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6.
This is bipartisan legislation. I want to thank Chairman Thompson and Ranking Member Katko for their leadership in announcing this bill, and I hope that it will have broad bipartisan support next week.
Mr. FERGUSON. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the majority for those remarks on the schedule.
I also want to take a minute to thank the leader, and others over there, for helping pass H.R. 2877, the Behavioral Intervention Guidelines Act. It is a really good bill that will go a long way in supporting school safety. I know there were many questions about it, and everybody worked to get it to a good spot. I would like to, again, extend my appreciation for all of the help from my Democratic colleagues.
Turning to the operations of the House, as the gentleman knows, the CDC has now lifted all mask and social distancing requirements. President Biden has lifted the mask requirements for the White House staff. But, amazingly, here in the House of Representatives, we still must wear the mask, stagger the vote times, have these long vote times. We should be going back to a 5-minute and a 2-minute schedule so we can do the work of the House.
When can we expect these restrictions to be lifted?
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California.
Mr. AGUILAR. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for the question and for acknowledging the extraordinary success of the Biden-
Harris administration in putting millions of shots in arms at a historic pace.
Mr. FERGUSON. Madam Speaker, reclaiming my time.
We, as Americans, should all celebrate Operation Warp Speed and the work done by the administration to be able to do that and to follow through. We greatly appreciate the Biden administration's following up on the really great work of Operation Warp Speed and the Trump administration.
Mr. AGUILAR. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. FERGUSON. I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. AGUILAR. Madam Speaker, that success that the gentleman talked about was fueled by this Congress last year and this year and by a science-based investment approach that the American Rescue Plan offered. As evidenced by this guidance, we are building back.
But I want to call particular attention to the ``Dear Colleague'' letter that Dr. Monahan sent out to everyone on the Capitol complex campus. It says: ``The present mask requirement and other guidelines remain unchanged until all Members and floor staff are fully vaccinated.''
Mr. FERGUSON. Madam Speaker, reclaiming my time.
That is in direct contradiction to CDC guidelines.
And on top of that, will the gentleman explain how in the world you are going to get that information that every member of this body has been vaccinated without violating HIPAA laws?
Mr. AGUILAR. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. FERGUSON. Please. I would love an answer.
Mr. AGUILAR. The centerpiece of this strategy that the gentleman just acknowledged is vaccinations.
It is important that we continue to get as many Members as we can vaccinated. That is the strategy that Dr. Monahan, Rear Admiral Monahan, a distinguished physician, the strategy that he has laid out.
Mr. FERGUSON. Reclaiming my time.
Of course, we would like all Americans to be vaccinated. But, again, you will never be able to understand or know how many Members are actually vaccinated unless you require them to give you that information. If you require them to give you that information, then the majority will be in violation of the HIPAA privacy laws.
How in the world can you violate the HIPAA privacy laws on this? What does that mean for future pandemics and future diseases?
There are laws in place that say that Members do not have to disclose their health information. And if the gentleman could please explain how you force a Member of this body to disclose their personal health information without violating HIPAA laws, I would love to hear that answer.
Mr. AGUILAR. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. FERGUSON. I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. AGUILAR. Madam Speaker, the cornerstone of the strategy is vaccinations. What the gentleman is asking is an important question. What the majority is saying is, let's follow the guidance of the Office of the Attending Physician.
We have no interest in knowing individually what Members and what staff members are vaccinated. Our interest is in governing this House and the operations of this body, and we trust that Dr. Monahan will work with both parties and both sides of the aisle and will give us a report when this House is fully vaccinated. That becomes our guidance.
Mr. FERGUSON. Reclaiming my time.
So the President, the leader of the Democratic socialist movement right now here in America, has said that it is good enough for the White House, yet you are going to defer to the House physician over the President of the United States.
Mr. AGUILAR. Will the gentleman yield? We will talk about the Constitution.
Mr. FERGUSON. No.
My point is that there is so much inconsistency here. You will never, ever get to the point, Madam Speaker, that you will ever be able to get every Member to show some sort of vaccination card without violating the HIPAA privacy protections.
Again, I am listening to the rhetoric. It is a simple question: How do you compel Members of this body to disclose their private health information without violating HIPAA laws?
Not strategy. Not theoretical. How are you going to do that?
What provision in the law, in the HIPAA protections of an American's private information regarding their healthcare record, are you going to waive to compel Members of the House to show that they have been vaccinated?
I yield to my colleague from California.
Mr. AGUILAR. I appreciate the gentleman from Georgia yielding once again. I will try to be as clear as I possibly can.
We will follow the guidance of the Office of the Attending Physician, a decorated rear admiral, who is hoping, with the Sergeant at Arms, to govern the Capitol complex.
As the CDC guidelines mention--and I am sure my colleague has read the full CDC guidance, which specifically says government buildings and local governments and State governments may make separate----
Mr. FERGUSON. Reclaiming my time.
I will wrap this topic up with a couple of observations.
Our colleagues across on the other side of the building are certainly following different guidelines than we are here. I think it is important to note that what the majority is doing here is that they are undermining the vaccination program. They are committing public health malpractice by saying, if you get the vaccine, it doesn't work.
What is the incentive to do this?
I am going to move on to the next topic. I believe we have beat this dead horse enough and there is no answer.
Mr. AGUILAR. The gentleman knows I am happy to talk about HIPAA and your role with it.
Mr. FERGUSON. Please.
Mr. AGUILAR. What I would say is, the CDC guidelines, as my colleague from Georgia understands, specifically mentions workplaces can set their own guidelines. We are following workplace guidance given by the Office of the Attending Physician and the Sergeant at Arms. Those are the processes that govern this body, whether Democrats are in control or Republicans are in control. We should be guided by public health guidance. That is exactly what we are doing here.
Mr. FERGUSON. Could the gentleman answer one question: Is President Biden wrong? Or is Dr. Monahan wrong?
I yield to the gentleman from California.
Mr. AGUILAR. And I appreciate the question. Because as the gentleman knows, we are a co-equal branch of government here in the Capitol. So I appreciate his love of the executive branch of government; I really do. However, we are governed by different rules. As a co-equal branch of government, we should be.
Mr. FERGUSON. I will say this before we move on to the next topic. It does appear that many of us are governed by different rules along the way.
So let's move on to one final thing.
As you know, this has been police reform week. I was happy to see that President Biden set the deadline for May 25 to sign a police reform bill. I was also extremely happy to see that Democrat leadership has dropped its request to eliminate qualified immunity. I thought that was a very strong statement and very positive.
As the majority whip said on May 9: I know what the perfect bill will be. We have proposed that. And I want to see good legislation. I know that sometimes you have to compromise. And if we don't get qualified immunity now, we can come back and try to get it later. But I don't want to see us throw out a good bill because we can't get a perfect bill, good legislative action.
Now, in order to get this bill done by the May 25--that is a fairly short timeline. I know that Representative Pete Stauber has a bill ready to go--a really good bill--that addresses the things in a very bipartisan way that I think we would like to see.
Based on the schedule that you laid out, do you anticipate that the majority would take up Mr. Stauber's bill so that we can meet President Biden's deadline of May 25?
Mr. AGUILAR. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. FERGUSON. I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. AGUILAR. I appreciate the question, and this is such a timely and important topic that the country needs to address. I am incredibly pleased with the bipartisan success that the negotiations have led to, to date.
As the gentleman knows, those conversations continue to be ongoing, but the majority believes that those conversations are progressing in a way that is hopeful toward addressing this issue.
I think both sides realize, and I hope the minority realizes, the importance of making changes to protect our communities. I know the gentleman is a former mayor, as I am as well. So we have dealt with a lot of these issues at the local level.
So what I would say is, Senator Scott, Congressman Stauber, and Congresswoman Karen Bass have been engaged in this discussion. We want to give them the latitude and the flexibility to continue those discussions. I wouldn't agree with the characterization that the gentleman from Georgia made about where the negotiations are, but I can tell you that we are committed to seeing this done. We are committing to getting this done and putting a bill on the floor that will have strong bipartisan support.
Mr. FERGUSON. Reclaiming my time.
I implore the majority to put Mr. Stauber and Mr. Scott's bill onto the floor as soon as possible so that we can reach a bipartisan vote and consensus on this.
I just want to make one other observation here, knowing that it is police week. We have got men and women around this country--you and I, again, both as mayors, had the honor of being involved in that, seeing the sacrifice that they make, whether it is local police officers or deputies out patrolling our country roads in many parts of my district; the men and women of the Customs and Border Patrol Agency who are down there putting their lives on the line every single day to stop the grossness of human trafficking and the horrors of narcotic trafficking; or looking around this very building that we are in right now, looking at the men and women who have been here, that will continue to be here to serve us and protect us.
What I found very interesting about this week is that the silence from the majority is deafening. Not bringing a resolution to honor our men and women in law enforcement says an awful lot about how you feel.
And I will say this: I think the majority should come back in--and I think we would all agree to do this next week--to put a resolution on the floor to honor the men and women of law enforcement, because I can't imagine which group is not worthy of that.
I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. AGUILAR. As the gentleman knows, there was a lengthy Special Order hour led by our colleague from Florida, former police chief herself, talking about the importance of these issues, the importance of honoring heroes, the importance of honoring people who put themselves in harm's way each and every day and are behaving well.
What I would ask the gentleman from Georgia is, in that similar vein, honoring police week, honoring those folks who helped us, who looked out for us January 6, I hope the gentleman will encourage the minority leader to meet with Officer Fanone from the Metropolitan Police Department, who has requested a meeting with the minority leader to talk about the events of January 6 and to talk about his experiences, which were so impactful as he shared them on national television and as he talked about the role that he played and the role that his colleagues played in protecting this temple of democracy.
I hope that the minority leader has the time to meet with Officer Fanone. I signed a letter to the minority leader from my colleagues encouraging him to do so, and I hope that the gentleman from Georgia reiterates the importance to meet with law enforcement heroes.
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Mr. FERGUSON. But, again, I want to go back to it, with the morale of the officers here in the Capitol as low as it is right now, the tremendous stresses that they are under, the staffing problems that they have, wondering whether or not this entire body at times has their back.
Mr. AGUILAR. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. FERGUSON. No, not yet. I think it is important that this body bring a resolution to the floor supporting the men and women in law enforcement around the Nation, but particularly right here in this Capitol. I will be the first one, along with the rest of my colleagues, to support that resolution.
And, so again, it is very simple. A lot of words. And I do appreciate the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Demings), for leading the Special Order. She certainly knows, as a former law enforcement officer and leader of a department, how tough that is. But, again, the silence here is deafening.
With that, Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 84
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